dogu-turkistan-sempozyumu

FREEEAST TURKISTAN SYMPOSIUMThe demographic structure of East Turkistan as of 1996: 17Ethnic GroupsPopulationUyghur 7,916,013Kazakh 1,258,521Kyrgyz 160,483Uzbek 13,498Tatar 4,700Chinese (Han) 6,432,816Dongan 760,181Mongol 155,415Manchu 20,559Russian 9,206Xibe 38,854Dagur 6,386Tajik 38,000Total 16,892,9006. 1. The economic structure of East TurkistanThe economy of East Turkistan relies on agriculture. Wheat, rice, cotton,barley, corn, beet, cannabis, apples, grapes, peaches, figs, pears, melons and watermelonsare grown in the region. The northern parts of East Turkistan are heavilyinvolved in live stock-breeding. Today, this region has more than 60 million headof cattle, sheep and goats. Furthermore, trade is another key component of theeconomy in East Turkistan. Urumchi, Kashgar and Hoten are important tradecentres.East Turkistan is very rich in natural resources, including oil, natural gas, coal,gold and uranium. China meets 25% of her oil requirements from this region.The most recent studies have shown that the natural gas reserve in East Turkistanis 1 trillion 400 billion cubic meters, an amount that can meet the natural gasrequirement of China for 30 years. 18 The coal reserves of East Turkistan constitute40% of the overall coal reserves of China.282